It is known in the art to provide a kite with a windsock-like body, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. D407,126 to Wang. This design patent discloses a kite having an airplane configuration, wherein the airplane kite K comprises (referring to FIG. 1) a windsock body element B which is generally cylindrically-shaped, wings W, and a tail T. Wings W are supported by semi-rigid or rigid cross-beam rods C and the windsock body B is supported internally by one or more semi-rigid or rigid rods R. Referring to FIG. 2, a pair of rods R are positioned lengthwise through the windsock body B. These rods R are slightly longer than the length of windsock body B and are crossed to form an X-shape to provide stability and support to windsock body B. Rods R are retained at their respective ends by a plurality of pockets P, with the ends of each rod R touching opposite sides of the windsock body.
A difficulty is encountered in such designs in providing an internal support structure which can simply but effectively maintain the open cross-sectional shape of the windsock body in spite of the tensile stresses placed on the kite body by the internal rods and the wing cross-beams. The lengthwise stresses provided by the internal support rods tends to flatten the cylindrical cross-section of the windsock and, likewise, the transverse or lateral tension induced by the wing cross-beam also tends to locally flatten the windsock. It has been found that the configuration of the rods R in FIG. 2 is somewhat unstable and, further, does not adequately fill out the windsock shape, resulting in a somewhat limp or wrinkled appearance to the windsock body.
Accordingly, there is a need of an internal support structure for a windsock-like kite which overcomes these and other problems of prior art kites.